• 7 Posts
  • 51 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • Hey man, call me an asshole if it makes you feel better, I’m just pointing out the problems as I see them, and the giant gaping holes in your suggestions. Widespread political corruption isn’t something we can safely ignore. The public can’t crowdfund journalism in a sustainable way, unless they get a substantial increase in disposable wealth.

    That’s the world as it currently exists.

    One Koch donation is worth more than the locals can ever give to local journalism, and most local outlets are just Sinclair Broadcast Group in a rubber mask anyway. But sure, be angry that you can’t fix it by parroting a facile solution, that really helps us get there.

    In response to your edit:
    You’re so close to getting it omg. Keep trying. It’s almost like this is a problem that’s been considered before, and had a solution. How could we ensure a public service is publicly funded? Should our poorest even be selling their plasma to pay taxes? That almost sounds like a whole other problem… If only we had a way to regulate these things. But of course, we can only consider solutions within a capitalist model, cuz 'merica, so obviously there’s no solution.


  • Because you’re obviously struggling, what I’m saying that objective & effective journalism is vital to informed decision-making in a democracy, and we’re not getting it because journalism in the US is run as a business¸ which imo will always end with media focusing exclusively on whatever makes them the most money, irrespective of the truth. If we want real journalism we need to view it, and fund it, as a public service. The problem is systemic, and our news media will continue to fail us until the system is rectified.



  • Ah yes, clearly we should simply accept that corruption is endemic, unavoidable really, and expect our press to ignore it.

    Tale as old as time, I’m sure it’ll work out fine.

    They have more important things to focus on anyway! Like Hunter Biden’s laptop.

    And of course, Journalism’s collapsing payment model is entirely the public’s fault. Just give them more money you lazy bums!










  • Oops, you’re absolutely right about the attribution, the quote I posted above is from an earlier letter, I had too many open at once.

    Unfortunately, the provision you mention is essentially a bad-faith attempt to skirt the first amendment objections, while leveraging the imposed ‘duty of care’ to allow State AGs to censor with impunity. From p.6 of the more recent letter:

    > > > KOSA will enable politically motivated actors to purge the Internet of speech that they dislike under the guise of “protecting minors.” Section 11(b) permits state attorneys general to bring enforcement actions whenever they believe that a resident of their state has been adversely affected by an alleged violation of KOSA. The inevitable abuse is entirely predictable. Consider two possibilities. First, in the aftermath of the May 14, 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a report blaming social media platforms for hosting the hateful speech that radicalized the shooter and calling for increased civil liability.27 Under KOSA’s duty of care, James could file suit 28 alleging failure to mitigate or prevent “physical violence” that might affect a minor user to pressure platforms into removing any speech deemed “hateful.” > >

    > > > Second, some have already admitted that KOSA will be 29 used to censor LGBTQ content, especially that which relates to gender-affirming care. Armed with cherry-picked and selectively interpreted studies associating trans content with “anxiety, depression . . . and suicidal behavior,” 30 an ambitious attorney general will claim that “evidence-informed medical information” requires that platforms prohibit minors from viewing such content under KOSA’s duty of care. A state attorney general need not win a lawsuit—or even file one at all—to effectuate censorship. They need only initiate a burdensome investigation to pressure platforms to take down or restrict access to disfavored content.(31) > >


  • > > > Would it be impossible to create separation between sites used by older teens and adults? > >

    Obviously it’s not impossible, it just requires sites to obtain a verifiable proof of age, i.e., a government ID.

    A lot of pathological optimism in this thread, and it might not impact you (at first), but the document you’re quoting explains why a lot of people are concerned:

    > > > KOSA would require online services to “prevent” a set of harms to minors, which is effectively an instruction to employ broad content filtering to limit minors’ access to certain online content. Content filtering is notoriously imprecise; filtering used by schools and libraries in response to the Children’s Internet Protection Act has curtailed access to critical information such as sex education or resources for LGBTQ+ youth. Online services would face substantial pressure to over-moderate, including from state Attorneys General seeking to make political points about what kind of information is appropriate for young people. At a time when books with LGBTQ+ themes are being banned from school libraries and people providing healthcare to trans children are being falsely accused of “grooming,” KOSA would cut off another vital avenue of access to information for vulnerable youth. > >